The Cleaner

So let~s play the `have you seen that movie game`:

Anyone seen Resevoir Dogs?

Pretty violent flick....anyone remember the cleaner scene?

Well, for those of you who turned the movie off, what happens is basically as follows. An incident occurs in which the protagonists blow someones brains out all over the inside of the fancy white leather car and they need to get the situation (as well as the car) cleaned...in a hurry. Harvey Keitel (the cleaner) is called in and arrives in a tuxedo to make the situation go away.

Now, you are probably wondering what situation I´m in that warrants starting off a story with this cinematic analogy.

Well here it is:

So two days ago I opened an email message from a researcher here in Brazil, and downloaded a document he sent me (which I assumed was virus-free) ((You can probably see where this is going...)

After downloading the document all of these ads started popping up on my computer...then several minutes later the computer started acting funnier, no not like tellnig jokes, but like not working....I shut it down....

and it wouldn~t restart....

Ok, freaking out: all of my summer research. Not really thoroughly backed up, a draw back of not having a cd/dvd burner in the computer, is that i only have 2gb backed up of the important stuff on a thumb drive, and some stuff in the cloud storage online (yes, various lessons being learned here)

So freaking out, I ask the people at the hostel: And they make the call.

And arrives Marcos, in a very nice suit (a tuxedo might be innappropriate).

He~s the cleaner. And three hours later he~s still cleaning. Apparently this was a very nasty virus and was trying to destroy my operating system.....Marcos seems to be of the qualifications of Harvey Keitel, so I have complete faith that he will be able to get my white leather cadillac back to its pristine white condition (minus the amazonian dirt that~s engrained in it)......

So lessons learned:

1. A spyware program is only as good as it is (i.e it can~t detect new viruses it doesn~t know about (according to Marcos)

2. You are the best spyware program there is (ie know what you~re opening, which unfortunately makes it difficult when you revert back to the law of the highway which is you~re only as safe as the least safest person on the road.....)

3. Back up, back up, back up

4. Know the number of a good cleaner